page 4/13
Ben's small bible of realistic multiplayer leveldesign
by Benjamin Bauer
"an article describing how
to make a multiplayer level
from scratch to the end for a realistic setting"
go to 'page 3 of the article "Ben's small bible of realistic multiplayer leveldesign"
Improvements With Tactic Elements - Introduction
So far I have been talking mainly about strategic
elements, but the player also needs some really good tactical possibilities.
The player doesn't necessarily see your strategic deliberations but he
directly sees your tactical ones, so be sure that they are good and fresh.
After forming your basic plan, you can already build a very rough version
of your map in your editor. It is a good idea to test your map by running
around while timing how long it takes to get to different areas of the
map. If you find that it takes you 2 minutes to run to the allocated battle
zone and the other team takes only 30 seconds, then you should really
change your strategy layout. Move the battle zone or slow down/speed up
the players in certain areas so that everything works fine again. This
will be explained in more depth later in the article; just never forget
to test your map at an early stage with a clock.
Improvements With Tactic Elements - Battelareas - Introduction
Battle areas are the places where the two teams meet if they start running from their spawn points with the same speed. If you have a game where not every player has the same speed, you should think carefully about where to place your battle areas. You need to make them big enough so that; if the slowest player and the fastest one want to reach the field, the faster one should have an advantage (e.g. reaching a good sniper spot without any real danger or jumping into the alternative tunnel without seen by the enemy). Here, you can already see that tactical elements are really important to support the different kind of players you have. A large sniper area should normally have an alternative route inside for really fast scouts. Even a big CQB warehouse should have a longer hallway between the crates for some mid range fighting.
Improvements With Tactic Elements - Battelareas - Basic Rules
Before we take a look at your example maps, we must learn some basic rules of battle areas. I'll try to explain the basic intention of these rules in small, understandable sketches, feel free to improve them and don't use so many crates like I'm doing it here. These sketches are solely for the intention of demonstrating these rules. The rest of the design might not really be perfect, but it's is the intention that really matters. If I am talking about entrances, it is not always simply a doorway into a big room; it could also be a roof, a canyon, or a hill. It just depends on the situation.
- 1) There should be always more than
one entrance to a battle area for each team (or the only entrance should
have enough cover in front so there are at least two possibilities to
appear in the area).
- There is nothing more stupid than when the player knows that in 12,3sec the opponent player will come through that specific door. If the level design makes player movements too predictable, then it is a bad level design!
In the first situation I placed some crates in front of the entrance. Now the other player can either come around the right or the left side of the boxes, or perhaps he can even jump on the top of them and perform a surprise action. Of course, there is a mass of different possibilities to enhance it, not just two or three ways but especially with nice architecture.
The second possibility is similar but a little bit more confusing for the player. At the beginning he might think there are two completely different ways. Soon he will notice that both ways lead to the same result. Of course, this depends on the distance between the two entrances and the distance to the lurking enemy. For a sniper who is 150m away, it's quite a lot easier to protect these two entrances than for a rifleman who can only be 20m away. If you really only have two ways for each team to enter the battle area, it is always good if one of the enemies can never see both entrances clearly from an advanced position.2) Campers should never have an easy life!
When you place your tactical elements, always take a look at where there might be typical camper positions. If you have such a situation, be sure that he can never see all entrances to the battle area, and that the opponent always has a fair chance to move around him and shoot him from behind. If you have an important door which a camper might hide behind, make a second door near the first one. If there is a good position to see both doors, place an object (e.g. a crate/pillar/bush) in front of one of the doors to obscure the camper's vision. Always remember that sniper positions might also make very good camper positions, so they should be treated the same way! If you want sniper positions in your field, every team should have a minimum of two, and they all should be able to see each other. A sniper position, in this case, is a single spot. If you have a big hill or a house with some windows for snipers, it is enough because you can never predict exactly where they will appear. The best way to defeat a sniper is with a counter-sniper. Both snipers should have more then one position to attack from, otherwise it might become boring and the only challenge is to reach the position as quickly as possible. At least one sniper position should be bad, and every sniper position should have a counter-sniper position. If one sniper position is too powerful, then it could easily become very frustrating
The first example is typical. The player wants to run out of the battle area but there is a nasty camper behind the crates. In this situation he might have some problems. The player is able to jump on the big crate in the middle or he can go around the big crate from the left and the right side. The left side has an additional way to appear from another situation. It is impossible for a camper to hide next to the crates and protect himself from all areas of attack.
For the second situation I chose another well-known problem. A camper might be able to hide very well in the yellow field (bushes/rocks/etc.) and protect the north entrance. Even the small crate in front won't change a lot, but a simple walk around reduces the advantage of this camper area drastically, especially if the east entrance is on a higher level than the north one.
Another good solution to weaken campers is to give the players a chance to use their special equipment or to use the special features of your engine. For example, you have to cross a long tunnel and you know that there is someone with a sniper rifle at the end just waiting for you to jump down. Why not make it easy for the player to throw a flashbang inside or quickly run to the entrance of the tunnel into an alternative route which you can only reach with the help of a smoke grenade? Of course the smoke can also comes out of a pipe or you can switch off the light, etc. It is the same with windows; a grid always looks nice but if it makes it too difficult to blow out the sniper with a grenade then it is bad for the gameplay.
In my sketches, I only work with easy elements like walls and crates. With more complex architecture and interesting terrain, you should find enough new situations to avoid the widespread camper problem. You will never prevent it completely but this will make it more fair and fun.3) Give the player enough tactical possibly, make him unpredictable.
If there is only one big cover in the middle of your area it's quite easy to know where your enemy might be. If you see a grenade falling next to your foot, it would be cool if the enemy doesn't always know that you have to come around a certain corner to find him. The player should be able to move less predictably through the field. It is quite boring to know that in every round/match, very similar situations will happen.
If your area is just flat without any higher levels, it doesn't just look boring, it is also bad for cool tactics and the enemies normally always know at which height is/are your head/nuts. A good terrain and architecture with different floors is really a blessing! You can prevent a lot of complex cover placement with some hills and valleys. Firefights between levels of different height are always fun in urban environments, especially if you can switch them quickly. Terrain levels might give a fresh variation of different views (e.g. from a high hill you can see behind the rocks where you presume a nasty camper is hiding, or down in the valleys you can see below the car and shoot at the feet of enemies who might hide behind it). You really have to check all different kinds of positions and their tactical possibilities and be sure that everything is fun & balanced!
Use alternative kinds of cover; soft cover (e.g. bushes, grass), half cover (e.g. small boxes, trees), and full cover (e.g. big rocks, house). For example, if you want to prevent the sniper in the upper window seeing the roof on the right side, just place a tree in-between. Now only lucky hits and covering fire through the tree might be a success and in a lower level, the tree trunk is a nice half cover. If you want one team to be able to pass easily from one big cover to another, just place several bushes there. However, as soon as they are spotted, they might have a real big problem. Such elements can not only be tactical and funny for the stealth player, they can also be exciting too. Sadly, it is true that a lot of level designers forget to include these soft cover elements (bushes etc).
This is just a simple example of tactical variations. The player is coming out of the south entrance. He can choose between the left and the right way around the crates (full cover), to reach the other boxes. Behind this crate he has four different possibilities: the two different sides of the box (normal), the tunnel which leads into the house (surprise change, higher level) or jumping into the trench to sneak forward (stealth way and higher level). If he chooses the right way at the beginning he can go into the house (CQB and windows are half covers), in the watch tower (sniper point) or he can climb on the roof of the house (high level) with a few air-conditioning ducts (half cover). At the end of the house he has some bushes (soft cover) which might help him to sneak forward but won't help him if he is on the roof.
4) Include special ways for special players.
No, I don't want to tell you again that you should include stealth and rush ways. Real special ways should support people who like to take extreme risks or absurd ways to really surpass the enemy. I wouldn't say that this is a must to have in every battle area, but a few in your level would really increase the fun factor. I'm thinking about hard jump combinations (e.g. to reach another floor which you can use to walk around your enemy, or to reach the upper part of a tree to hide inside). Other special ways would be secret and hard to find; climbing tracts or areas which you can only reach together with a teammate (i.e. a ladder). I don't think I have to make a special sketch for this last rule, just don't forget the pro and hard-core players might really thank you for such small ideas.
Imagine a main battle area like a large room which
gives the player a lot of different possibilities to cross it. If you
add some more, smaller routes to improve the tactical possibilities in
your battlefield, then treat them the same as you would the strategic
routes. For example, the short way is fast but more dangerous and the
longer/more difficult one could make it easier to avoid campers. There
should be never an ultimate route (or routes) or an ultimate position.
Everything must have advantages and disadvantages depending on the type
of player! Keep this in mind and try to follow these rules as closely
as possible, and the players will have some really exciting firefights
in your level.
Don't be afraid to force the players to move fast on some ways or to stop
them if you have to. If you don't want the players to cross the square
very quickly, just place the only good cover at the border (in the middle
there is some kind of 'death zone' every smart player will avoid). If
you want the player to move a little bit faster, just make a bigger hallway
with no cover and you'll see that every clever guy starts running here.
Okay, you don't always need to make it so hard but sometimes you have
to, especially if you have moving missiongoals like VIPs or flag carriers.
I'll talk more about this topic later.
go to 'page 5 of the article "Ben's small bible of realistic multiplayer leveldesign"
